Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Potato Kneidlach: Another Gluten-Free Matzo Ball Alternative

Potato kneidlach are light, fluffy potato dumplings for Passover that are a wonderful gluten-free substitute for matzo balls. I have loved these ever since I first made them for a gluten-free friend in 2005. I based this recipe off of one from The Passover Gourmet by Nira Rousso. My dad e-mailed me Rousso's recipe for potato dumplings a few years ago and I used that as the basis for these. This afternoon or tomorrow I will post about another delicious use for leftover potato kneidlach batter.

Cut potatoes into large chunks and boil in water until soft. Drain and allow to cool. Once cool, mash with oil, eggs, salt, pepper and dill. Stir in potato starch until thoroughly combined, and refrigerate the mixture for 1 hour. Bring soup or a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Use your hands to gently form rough ball shapes from one tablespoon of batter at a time, and submerge dumplings in the soup or water - If you prefer, you may use a soup spoon or ice cream scoop to move free-form spoonfuls of batter into the pot. Boil for approximately 5-6 minutes - The dumplings will float up to the surface quickly but will need several additional minutes to cook all the way through.

Serve in soup, or as a side dish with butter or margarine and fried onions.

Chocolate Lady - Thanks! Are you vegetarian? I think I am going to make a vegetarian soup this year - A slightly modified, simpler version of my "Victorious Vegetable Stock". It seems easier and cheaper than making a chicken broth, and is so very tasty I don't think anyone will miss the chicken.

oh wow thanks for sharing this. i had given up on making any dumplings this year cos i was out of matzah meal, ground nuts are not economical and kosher for passover is not a category that exists here for other alternatives, so this is ideal :) It will go well with my carrot ginger soup I think :D

Trini: Are nuts very expensive there? I buy them relatively cheaply in bulk here (when you consider that you only use a tiny bit in a recipe). Anyhow, I sure do love these potato kneidlach - I hope you do, too. Let me know how it turns out. Combined with carrot ginger soup... wow! Sounds tasty.

Yeah nuts are expensive... peanuts not so much but other more exotic ones like almonds and walnuts etc... they come in these small bags that hold maybe 3/4 cup worth of nuts... so to get a lot of ground meal would have to buy a lot of them, (you can buy ground almonds in 1/3 cup bags but again $$$) i could probably get a whole chicken instead for the same price lol :D i'm still not sure about hosting my annual seder for health reasons but you can be sure if i do i'll be making this :D and i'll letyou know :D

I just tried these and they were fabulous. I made both this recipe and the one you posted made from almonds. They were both very good, but my GF family seemed to go for seconds of the potato version! This recipe is definitely a keeper! Thank you.

These were good! I made them for our seder. I wasn't sure how many matzo balls the recipe would make, so I doubled it, but then used about half the dough and had more than enough matzo balls for 6 adults and 3 kids.

When I had everything mixed up and ready to go into the refrigerator, I thought the mixture looked scarily soupy, so I added a lot more potato starch at that point.

Also, I was worried that if I made these and then they sat in hot soup during the seder, then I thought they might dissolve. But no dissolving occurred -- the kneidlaches were fine. (Some of our guests showed up almost an hour late, so the kneidlaches sat for a *long* time before we finally ate them. And it was fine.)

Mama: The flaxseed potion and/or Ener-G egg replacer, plus extra potato starch and maybe some tapioca starch in addition (tapioca is very sticky) could work. Give it a shot... at worst, they won't work and you'll fry them up as pancakes instead!

Mama: The flaxseed potion and/or Ener-G egg replacer, plus extra potato starch and maybe some tapioca starch in addition (tapioca is very sticky) could work. Give it a shot... at worst, they won't work and you'll fry them up as pancakes instead!

I'm pretty late to the party, I see, but thanks so much for posting this recipe: I made these today for the first time for my celiac son to eat at the belated seder we attended tonight, and they were great and finally, he had something to eat in his soup when everyone else was eating matzoh balls.